The Gestation of a Culture: I’m Missing You, Volume 3

I was born in 1979; the last of a dying breed.  As a kid growing up in the mid-late 80’s, Hip-Hop Rap was climbing the charts.  The music began to get very loud and throughout my neighborhood, speakers started to make a lot of noise.  In my bed at night I could hear the beats of Eric B and the rhyme of Rakim.  I could hear police sirens in the distance as KRS-ONE “that’s the sound of the police” came through the walls, either from my cousin’s bedroom, the row-house next door of the streets below.  This was New Jersey, Philly, New York, and the metropolitan north. 

The Hip Hop sounds of expression took me in as I developed premature thoughts of my surrounding society.  I wasn’t a menace; I was only what 7, 8, 9 maybe 10 years old?  LL Cool J’s “I’m bad” and the B-boys Kids on the block, everything around me, the Tasty Cakes, big tubs of sherbet ice cream (everyone grab a spoon).  All these things to me are what I remember about genuine Hip hop.

I was still too young to understand a lot of the slang and the lyrics in Rap, but I understood “F**k the Police” and the meaning of N.W.A.  I understood artist like Scarface, Ice Cube and Easy E, they didn’t just rhyme, and they were rapping about everyday life.  People were fighting to live and struggling to be heard.  Hip hop rap was the voice for regular people who needed to express the real deal. 

As I got older, the game out west took hip hop to another level.  I learned when you express yourself and speak out about injustice and oppression; your oppressor will put forth great effort to keep you silent.  The government or those in authority will even take action to prevent the masses from hearing you, but one the music gets out, you can’t stop people from listening.

Hip hop rap was no longer just music, but now it had become a revolution and with the 90’s, things evolved.  I got older and my years in the incubator were over.  I started listening to the old school songs over and over until I got a better understanding.  Songs like KRS ONE’s “Black Cop” or Rakim’s “Follow the Leader.”  Finally someone rapped about U-N-I-T-Y and it wasn’t a man.  Thanks Queen Latifah. 

Artist started finding out it was cool to challenge the status quo, customs and structure of things, like religion and so forth.  Nothing was exempt from the lyrical content.  Whether it was a “Death Certificate,” “Lethal injection,” or simply a ghetto bird, I understood rappers weren’t just making noise, but all this time they were protesting.  The lyrics had a meaning and the music became a movement.  That’s what I miss about Hip hop today.

Too much material and not enough substance.  There was once a purpose, a fighting cause for being a rapper.  Even in the mid to late 90’s rap was still argumentative.  Artist like Tupac, Richie Rich, Pastor Troy, Nas Biggie, and many more challenged listeners to use their minds and think four themselves.  It’s no wonder the movie Matrix came out in the 90’s.  Songs like: “Do G’s get to go to heaven,” Bone Thugs “Crossroads,” 2Pac “I wonder if heaven got a ghetto,” and “Blasphemy,” can’t forget Pastor Troy “vice versa.” Songs that asked for the listener to free their mind. 

Hip hop rap is a way to release the chains and limits and design your own outer limits.  A good artist will make you question the American way with its traditional values and beliefs, but more importantly hip hop reminded me that “Only God can judge me.”  Songs use to be more inspirational, not in a gospel way, but in the spirit of a warriors way.  And much respect given to the new school real hip hop you know who you are.  Because of where I am, I’m missing you.

Be Easy,

Dushame, a.k.a., J-Rock